The present invention pertains to a ball sleeve joint with a joint housing, a ball sleeve provided with a preferably spherically designed bearing surface and a bearing shell, which surrounds the bearing surface and is accommodated in a recess of the joint housing.
Ball sleeve joints of the type described in the introduction are known, in principle, in the state of the art and are used in various designs in all areas of industry, especially also in the automobile industry. In such joints, the housing is usually manufactured from a one-part tube, preferably one made of steel, in which the other components of the ball sleeve joint are fitted within the framework of the manufacture. The manufacturing steps provide for the fitting in of a first closing ring in the housing, after which the assembly unit already provided with the bearing shell surrounding the ball sleeve is inserted into the housing and is finally fixed in the housing by means of a second closing ring, where the two closing rings also assume a certain sealing function against external contamination effects with respect to the bearing shell located on the inside.
Even though the design of the ball sleeve joints is relatively simple, non-negligible costs arise due to the number of components to be connected to one another and the resulting number of manufacturing steps especially in case of the use of large numbers of such ball sleeve joints.
An object of the present invention is therefore to improve a ball sleeve joint of the type of this class described in the introduction such that the cost of the components can be reduced on the whole by reducing the necessary number of components and simplifying the manufacturing process.
This object is accomplished according to the present invention by the joint housing being formed by at least two housing parts, wherein the housing parts have corresponding elastic toothed elements, which can be locked with one another in the assembled state of the joint housing.
The formation of the joint housing according to the present invention preferably from two housing halves substantially simplifies the assembly of the ball sleeve joint because, on the one hand, the closing rings that were previously necessary can be eliminated and, moreover, the ball sleeve to be arranged inside the joint housing can also be placed in one of the housing halves that were separated prior to the assembly substantially more easily and consequently more rapidly and more inexpensively and can be subsequently fitted together by the locking connection, which is arranged on the housing halves and is formed by the toothed elements, without applying strong forces.
To further reduce the production costs, it proved to be especially advantageous to design the housing parts as symmetrical housing halves, whose plane of symmetry is arranged at right angles to the axial longitudinal axis of the joint housing. The symmetric design makes it possible to use two housing halves of identical shape for a ball sleeve joint, which reduces the variety of components, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, eliminates additional manufacturing costs for making a mold in the case in which the housing halves are advantageously manufactured from an elastic plastic material, preferably a polymer material.
Furthermore, it proved to be advantageous to design the toothed elements for locking the housing halves as detents that are arranged at spaced locations from one another on the outer circumference of the housing parts and project in the axial longitudinal direction of the ball sleeve joint and as locking recesses arranged between the detents, wherein the detent of one housing part is in functional connection with a locking recess of another housing part in the assembled state of the joint housing. A finger-like toothed engagement of the housing halves is formed due to this design, as a result of which rotation of the housing halves, which would possibly lead to a relative movement between the housing and the bearing shell located on the inside, is ruled out with certainty.
Furthermore, it proved to be advantageous to provide the detents on their inner side pointing toward the central longitudinal axis of the joint housing with a plurality of locking cams which extend at right angles to the central longitudinal axis, are arranged in parallel next to one another and project toward the central longitudinal axis, wherein depressions are located between the locking cams. Such a design is preferably present at the locking recesses on their outside facing away from the central longitudinal axis of the joint housing. Analogously to the design of the detents, a plurality of locking cams, which extend at right angles to the central longitudinal axis, are arranged in parallel next to one another and project toward the outside, as well as depressions located between the locking cams are provided there. As one detent of one housing halve cooperates with a corresponding locking recess of the other housing half, the arrangement of the locking cams and the corresponding depressions at the detents and locking recesses makes possible the axial clamping of the two housing halves during the assembly of the ball sleeve joint, and the permanent clamping or locking can be achieved by an extremely weak force to be applied axially. Based on empirical values, this force to be applied can be estimated to be on the order of magnitude of less than 1 kN. At the same time, a certain axial pretension can be applied to the inner ball sleeve and the bearing shell arranged in the recess of the joint housing due to the selection of a plastic material for the housing halves.
In addition, provisions are made in an advantageous embodiment of the subject of the present invention for the recess of the joint housing for accommodating the bearing shell to be provided with a plurality of projecting cams acting as a means for securing the inserted bearing shell against rotation.
Moreover, the recess of the joint housing may have projecting bearing pads with depressions located between the bearing pads on its inner surface facing the bearing shell to be accommodated. The depressions arranged between the bearing shells lead to an additional weight reduction due to the plastic material missing there. It should also be pointed out that the use of plastic as a material for the joint housing according to the present invention already leads, in principle, to a substantial weight reduction. Moreover, both contact corrosion and surfaces prone to corrosion on the housing in general are avoided by the use of plastic.